Among solid-state imaging apparatuses, having an energy ray sensitive portion wherein pixels are arrayed two-dimensionally, there are known solid-state imaging apparatuses that are used as one-dimensional line sensors by carrying out a binning (line binning) operation to enable detection of the distribution of weak light at high precision (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
The binning operation refers to the operation of transferring photoelectric charges, which have been accumulated according to each of a plurality of pixels (photoelectric conversion units) that are arrayed two-dimensionally in a row direction and a column direction, across entire columns and summing the charges accumulated in the respective pixels in the column direction according to each column in one step and then transferring the charges, which have been summed in one step according to each column, in the row direction. By this binning operation, since the charges that have been accumulated in the respective pixels in the column direction are summed according to each column, the distribution of light in the row direction can be detected at a comparatively high precision, even in the case of weak light.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2002-196075